Bank of England Governor Bailey said second-round effects are currently relatively moderate.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary Rezaei said in an interview broadcast Aug. 27 that decades of severe US sanctions and a US maritime blockade have not forced Tehran to yield, and characterized prior US and Israeli actions as largely psychological warfare. He said Iran has not specifically targeted US economic interests in the Middle East so far, but warned it will not ignore hostile US economic measures and that reciprocal Iranian economic action could inflict greater economic losses on the United States.

The Bank of Thailand governor said recent gold-trading curbs have weakened gold's influence on the baht and could be tightened further. In March the BOT capped online gold trades at 50 mln THB per person per day (~$1.5 mln) and encouraged larger investors to settle in USD rather than THB; the governor said the cap could be cut to 30 mln THB or lower if needed. The 60-day correlation between the baht and gold prices has fallen from a 0.85 peak last year to 0.3 in April, a four-year low. The BOT is increasing scrutiny: requiring declarations for physical gold withdrawals above 2 kg has reduced such withdrawals by about 70%. Authorities are also tightening controls on cash payments for gold purchases over 10 mln THB and on cash deposits/exchange transactions above 5 mln THB. The governor said he supports a Thai Finance Ministry proposal to tax some gold transactions to boost transparency, provided rates are low and do not burden legitimate businesses or consumers.